


Paint the Town Red (Or Blue, or Green, or Maybe Wallpaper?)

by Taupefox59



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Curtain Fic, Interior Decorating, M/M, Role Reversal, Shadowhunter Magnus Bane, Warlock Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 13:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17142872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taupefox59/pseuds/Taupefox59
Summary: Every year, High Warlock Alec Lightwood throws a winter mixer for Downworlders and Shadowhunters.This year, decorations maybe get a little bit out of hand.





	Paint the Town Red (Or Blue, or Green, or Maybe Wallpaper?)

**Author's Note:**

> My attempt at literal curtain-fic! Bonus mentions of Immortal Husbands!
> 
>  
> 
> Dear Floralegia - I hope you enjoy this bit of fluff!

“So,” Alec, said with one final sweep of his hand and a flick of his fingers, and every window was lined with christmas lights, adding a multi-coloured glow to the back of the room, “what do you think?”   
  
Magnus looked it all over thoughtfully, turning in a slow circle to take in all of the decorations that Alec had put up for their apartment. After a close perusal, he turned and stepped forward to kiss Alec sweetly on the mouth. “I think it’s  _ wonderful _ , darling! Tonight’s party is going to be amazing!” Magnus said with a grin. He spun around again, taking in the entire space. “You really are getting better every year.”   
  
Alec looked incredibly pleased with himself, even if his cheeks maybe got a touch pink, “I do listen to you.”   
  
Magnus laughed, “Honestly, they weren’t that bad before, either, from what I’ve heard.”   
  
Alec didn’t say anything, just raised an eyebrow with a look of extreme doubt.

 

Magnus laughed again, “There is a difference between _‘uninspired_ ’ and ‘ _bad_ ’, darling.”  
  
Alec rolled his eyes, but he was smiling again, so Magnus counted it as a win. “Hey, do you-” He cut himself off when his phone started to buzz. He sighed when he saw it was a text from the Institute. “Sorry, love, I’ve got to check this.”  
  
Alec gave him a lopsided grin. “There is no such thing as a day off for the Head of the Institute.”  
  
Magnus turned around and pointed at him, with a determined look on his face, “This Head of the Institute will be taking _several_ days off, all in a row, this summer when we’re on our honeymoon.”  
  
Alec smiled back, wide and bright, happiness shining in his eyes, “I can’t wait for that, _fiance_ of mine.”   
  
Magnus grinned, “Imagine how much better it will be when you get to call me hus-”  
  
“Hey!” Alec cut him off, but his voice was teasing and playful, “you’re not allowed to say that and you know it. No jinxing of _anything_.”  
  
“Just because the last few times we planned our wedding didn’t work out-”  
  
“No!” Alec said, and he was still grinning, but his voice had a serious note in it that was lacking earlier, “we are not talking about _those times_ , and we are not talking about _anything_ _else_ either!” He paused and walked to Magnus, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead, then on the nose, then on the mouth, soft and sweet.  
  
“I want to be married to you _so much_ , Magnus Bane.”  
  
Magnus smiled then kissed Alec back, “I think that might be able to be arranged.”  
  
“You mean it is currently _being_ arranged?” Alec asked, happiness clear even through his sarcasm.   
  
“I might mean that.” Magnus agreed. His phone buzzed again in his hand and he took a step back, “Sorry, Alexander, I really must-” He stopped when heard the distinct crackle of a fire message start. The flaming letter finished burning itself into existence and Alec reached out and grabbed it out of the air.   
  
First, Alec’s eyes went wide, then his mouth dropped open a little, and then slowly, he lets the hand holding the letter fall to his side. “Magnus.”  
  
Magnus frowned and quickly he swiped open the message from the Institute, needing to make sure it’s nothing urgent so he can ask Alec about whatever the fire message said that has him looking like _that_.  
  
His mouth dropped open when he read the text. He looked up at Alec, looking surprised and maybe just a touch nervous. “Alexander, that was from the Institute. They were saying they just got a fire message from the Seelie Queen.”  
  
Alec held up his message, “She’s coming to the party tonight.”  
  
Their eyes met for a long moment before they both turned to look at the apartment. “We are going to need to redecorate.” Magnus said, and Alec just nodded in agreement.   
  
It wasn’t that Alec’s decorations were offensive or lacking in any way, but… it was the annual winter mixer that Alec had been hosting for decades. When Alec had lived alone, the decorations had been a bit perfunctory, but after Magnus became part of the picture, it had become something that they enjoyed doing together. They would tour the apartment, deciding on new themes and styles, and having Alec magic it all up until it looked exactly like they wanted it to.   
  
Usually the mixer was mostly vampires, werewolves, and a handful of local warlocks. Since Magnus had started coming, the number of Shadowhunters attending had started to climb as well, but there had never, ever been more then a few Seelie knights who would show up simply to make sure the Seelie court had a presence there.   
  
It didn’t mean it was anything _close_ to what they would need to pull out in order to impress _the Seelie Queen_.   
  
Magnus held his hand out to Alec, “We don’t have much time, so we should get started.”   
  
Alec smiled gratefully and reached out, tangling his fingers with Magnus’. “Start in the living room?”  
  
Magnus shook his head, “The living room is the largest and always takes us the most time. Let’s get everything else done first.”  
  
Alec nodded, and they walked to the balcony, hand in hand.   
  
It only took a few minutes to add the needed touches of glamour to the balcony set-up. The walls were now lined with trellises of flowering vines, the balcony itself was covered in spanish moss that was lit up from tiny multi-coloured lights that Alec had created.  
  
The next stop was the banquet table, which simply acquired a few new plates of food. There were suddenly huge trays of roasted vegetables and sugared fruit.  
  
(They skipped the library, as they always did, because Alec’s library never needed any improvement. The walls were made of translucent stone slats, there was a massive marble fireplace along one of the walls, and, of course, there was a ladder in a track for moments when a person needed to slide across the library while holding a book.)  
  
When all of the easy things were done, they found themselves back in the main room of the apartment, looking the huge, empty space before them.  
  
Alec looked over at Magnus, tilting his head, “Ideas?”  
  
“Do we want to keep the theme in here?” Magnus asked, looking around.  
  
“There...isn’t really a theme in here.” Alec admitted. It was true - it did look _nice_ , but it didn’t particularly have a strong sense of cohesion anywhere.  
  
Magnus frowned and started at the walls, considering. “Maybe some purple?”  
  
It took a flick of Alec’s hand for the walls to be covered in a deep, rich, royal purple. The trim along the ceiling and floor were both in lavender, and the carpet was a deep forest green. It was _nice_ , but…  
  
“This isn’t doing it, is it.” Alec said with a sigh.  
Magnus shook his head, “I agree, there’s something about it that’s missing.”  
  
And so, the trouble started.  
  
There was paint, and wallpaper, designs out of films, books, paintings. Nothing seemed to be the perfect mixture of friendly and welcoming, while keeping an air of whimsy but still looking sophisticated.   
  
There was wallpaper patterned with metallic peacock feathers (far too busy, Alec took it down after it hadn’t even been up for a second.)  
The walls were filled with massive paintings of horses (which came down as soon as Magnus pointed out they were having kids around, and no one wanted to have to be constantly watching the walls to make sure no children accidentally knocked anything down.)  
The tree-patterned wallpaper was shot down by Magnus for being both too boring and too busy.  
Black and gold was too stark.  
Red and green was too obvious.  
It was when Alec spread his fingers to call up a deep brown wallpaper patterned with green felt fleur-de-lis that Magnus halted the proceedings.  
  
“Didn’t we already do something like this?” He asked with a frown.  
  
“What?”  
  
“We’ve already done green patterned wallpaper.” Magnus clarified.  
  
“We’ve already done many things.” Alec pointed out, sourly, but then he sighed. “I think I know what you mean though. I’m starting to lose track of where we’ve been.”  
  
“When mundanes are repainting, they do test patches on the walls,” Magnus said, “we could do something like that? Just do squares to see what we think, and then maybe we can come back to it.”  
  
Alec looked over at Magnus then nodded. Alec raised is hands and then sliced his fingers through the air, and when he pulled his hands back to his chest, the walls were covered with square patches of every design that they had tried that evening.  
  
There were patches that were practically pure glitter, patches that were deep, rich matte tones, wallpapers of all colours and textures, there was a patch of rustic wood paneling, a panel of glowing lava-lamp spread across the wall. There were panels of metal, panels of mosaic, panels of murals, one section where Alec had joking turned the wall into a lit-up, moving picture of the Horsehead nebula.  
  
The wall was _full_ , simply because they’d tried out so many designs.  
  
The last thing either of them was ready for was a knock on the door. Isabelle waited a few seconds before opening the door - enough time for Alec to magic them to rights if she was about to walk in on anything they didn’t want her to see.  
  
She made it about three steps into the apartment before she stopped and stared at the wall. “I must admit… _that_ was not what I was expecting.”  
  
“Iz, you’re early, _please_ help!” Alec said, looking at her with wide, pleading eyes.  
  
Isabelle raised an eyebrow and looked at it, “I think you should keep it like that.”  
  
Magnus glanced at the wall then looked at Isabelle, with a look of thoughtful consideration taking over his face. He turned to Alec, “She does have a point, Alexander. It would certainly be a conversation point.”  
  
Alec frowned at both of them. “You two are _always_ the ones telling me that the theme is key to a party!”  
  
Isabelle shrugged, “Sometimes your theme can be eclectic.”  
  
Magnus grinned, “The unexpected is always good.”  
  
Alec stared at them, then looked at the wall, then back at Magnus and Izzy. “I will _never_ understand parties.”  
  
Magnus and Izzy laughed, but it was kind.   
  
“It’s alright Alexander,” Magnus said, walking over to him and kissing him on the cheek, “That’s what we’re here for.”  
  
Alec grinned, “For forever, fiance?”  
  
Magnus leaned up to whisper into Alec’s ear, “I’m here for you forever, _husband_.”  
  
Alec spun then, catching Magnus around the waist and kissing him soundly - which was, of course, when the entire Seelie contingent walked through the door for the party.  
  
The Seelie Queen looked around, taking in the patchwork wall and the myriad of decorations still covering the living room. “I can see why they said these parties have become much more interesting lately.”  
  
Alec blushed a bit at the mention of his previous parties. He glanced at Izzy and Magnus, “I’ve been working on it.”  
  
The Seelie Queen looks at the three of them and smiles, looking oddly kind, “I would say that you have certainly succeeded Mr. Lightwood.”  
  
It was only a few minutes later for the rest of the guests to begin arriving, and everyone would stop when they walked in the door, needing several moments to comprehend all of the many styles that had somehow been combined onto a single wall.   
  
It was Madzie who saved the evening, when she’d run in and looked at it, then raced over to Magnus and Alec.  
  


“It’s all mixed up right?” she said gleefully.   
  


Alec looked confused, but he nodded.   
  
“All mixed up, in one spot, just like us tonight!”   
  
Alec and Magnus glanced and each other and then smiled at her.   
  
“That’s right, Sweetpea,” Magnus said, “It’s just like us tonight.”


End file.
